338 i. J. HAMILTON, 
Examination of the parts—At the exact seat of the lesion 
caused by the thread the tissue was mechanically broken 
down and numbers of blood-extravasations were seen. The 
true inflammatory area, however, was not here, but at some 
distance from this in the surrounding parts, generally most 
marked in the deepest portion of the anterior columns, close 
by the commissure, and in the commissure itself. In some 
instances the whole extent of a transverse section was inflamed. 
Changes in the Nerve-tubes. 
By far the most remarkable change was that which had 
taken place in the axis-cylinders of the nerve-tubes (see 
Pl. XVI. fig. 1). On looking at a transverse section, numbers 
large round translucent bodies deeply stained were seen 
occupying the distended and attenuated nerve-sheaths. 
These bodies were usually five to ten times as large 
as the normal transverse section of an axis-cylinder, but, 
in many instances, reached even greater dimensions. 
Their formation was most beautifully seen .in longitudinal 
sections. At regular intervals large oval tumours could be 
seen on the course of the axis-cylinders,! with attenuated 
portions of the original axis-cylinder still uniting them 
together (fig. 3). In many cases the axis-cylinder had quite 
given way, so that these large new formations came to have a 
separate existence, an existence as we shall see not calculated 
to end here, but to proceed to still further development. This 
condition was so remarkable as at once to arrest the attention, 
and in certain instances, it was seen all over the section ; 
in others it was localised to the most inflamed part. In some of 
the swellings concentric rings could be noticed, but, generally 
speaking, they had a translucent homogeneous aspect. On 
still closer examination one was struck with the remarkable 
fissiparous division which large numbers of them had under- 
gone, producing little dépéts of similar round translucent 
bodies of smaller size (fig. 2). These lay at first closely to- 
gether in aggregated clusters, but soon spread themselves out 
and invaded the surrounding tissues, leaving in their former 
site nothing but an empty distended nerve-sheath. In this 
stage they were exactly identical with the so-named colloid 
bodies so abundantly found in chronic nervous affections of 
the cord. ‘Their size, shape, translucency, and especially 
their adaptability for being deeply coloured with staining re- 
agents, were exactly similar to what every one must have 
1 Leyden (‘Klinik der Riickenmarks Krankheiten’) describes a similar 
esion, 
